Solbes v.
Madison

Updated Jan. 14, 2004 12:01 a.m. ET

Two hundred years and 11 months ago, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Marshall struck down an act of Congress on the grounds that the law in question was "unconstitutional." In doing so, he so changed the constitutional order of the United States that two centuries on, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the U.S. Supreme Court was never established for any purpose other than to rule on the constitutionality of acts of Congress.

But the fact is, this role was invented by Chief Justice Marshall while...